Welcome back to Let’s Scare Bryan to Death, where this month we’re diving into a heaping helping of giallo. Now, I’ve never been shy about sharing my misgivings with the giallo subgenre. My inability to get over the cognitive dissonance instilled by the wonky dubbing and the convoluted mystery elements usually keep me from truly loving Italian horror’s most famous import. But although I’m too often underwhelmed by the overall product, I find at least something to like about any giallo I watch. So I’m always up for trying a new one, especially if I get a chance to see the great John Saxon wearing a very silly fedora.
With that in mind, I’m very grateful to this month’s guest, Mark O. Estes, as he’s introducing me to Tenebrae, the 1982 offering from giallo maestro Dario Argento. You may know Estes as...
With that in mind, I’m very grateful to this month’s guest, Mark O. Estes, as he’s introducing me to Tenebrae, the 1982 offering from giallo maestro Dario Argento. You may know Estes as...
- 3/30/2022
- by Bryan Christopher
- DailyDead
[This October is "Gialloween" on Daily Dead, as we celebrate the Halloween season by diving into the macabre mysteries, creepy kills, and eccentric characters found in some of our favorite giallo films! Keep checking back on Daily Dead this month for more retrospectives on classic, cult, and altogether unforgettable gialli, and visit our online hub to catch up on all of our Gialloween special features!]
While Tenebrae wasn’t my first foray into Italian horror (that honor would go to Suspiria), it was my very first experience with Giallo cinema, which is probably why it’s always been my favorite entry in this subgenre of mystery thrillers. I first watched Tenebrae on a whim somewhere between the ages of 14 and 16, and while I’ll be the first to admit I didn’t totally “get it” at the time, there was something endlessly fascinating about it all the same that completely hooked me as a viewer and as a horror fan.
As I got older, I tucked Tenebrae away somewhere in the back of my brain, and it wasn’t until I went to Coachella 2008, of all places, when the film would find its way back into my life. It was on the final night of Coachella when I decided to ditch out on Roger Waters...
While Tenebrae wasn’t my first foray into Italian horror (that honor would go to Suspiria), it was my very first experience with Giallo cinema, which is probably why it’s always been my favorite entry in this subgenre of mystery thrillers. I first watched Tenebrae on a whim somewhere between the ages of 14 and 16, and while I’ll be the first to admit I didn’t totally “get it” at the time, there was something endlessly fascinating about it all the same that completely hooked me as a viewer and as a horror fan.
As I got older, I tucked Tenebrae away somewhere in the back of my brain, and it wasn’t until I went to Coachella 2008, of all places, when the film would find its way back into my life. It was on the final night of Coachella when I decided to ditch out on Roger Waters...
- 10/31/2020
- by Heather Wixson
- DailyDead
Over the top, excessive, too much reliance on anonymous sexy young women for thrills…definitely an inferior work! Let’s hope it is not a trend.
I have been one of Sorrentino’s greatest fans. As I wrote in the review of A Great Beauty “I could watch this film over and over again and still be inspired by the beauty of Rome and the depth of its flaneur, the hero of this film, journalist Jep Gambardella as played by the incomparable Toni Servillo.”
Well Toni Servillo is still incomparable. His face is a smiley face mask which can momentarily change into the face of a tired old man. But he is a cardboard figure as he plays Berlusconi in his last days before his current resurrection as a member of EU Parliament. His wife Veronica Lario, played by Elena Sofia Ricci was the only real character with any depth.
I have been one of Sorrentino’s greatest fans. As I wrote in the review of A Great Beauty “I could watch this film over and over again and still be inspired by the beauty of Rome and the depth of its flaneur, the hero of this film, journalist Jep Gambardella as played by the incomparable Toni Servillo.”
Well Toni Servillo is still incomparable. His face is a smiley face mask which can momentarily change into the face of a tired old man. But he is a cardboard figure as he plays Berlusconi in his last days before his current resurrection as a member of EU Parliament. His wife Veronica Lario, played by Elena Sofia Ricci was the only real character with any depth.
- 8/21/2019
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Matteo Garrone’s gritty revenge drama “Dogman” was the big winner at Italy’s 63rd David di Donatello Awards, the country’s equivalent of the Oscars, taking home nine trophies Wednesday night from a field-beating 15 nominations.
Somewhat surprisingly, however, the sweep did not include a best-actor prize for Marcello Fonte, who had previously won that accolade at Cannes, where “Dogman” premiered, and more recently at the European Film Awards.
“Directing is important…but without great actors you don’t go anywhere,” said Garrone, who thanked Fonte and brought him up onstage.
“I started writing this movie 12 years ago,” Garrone added. “Then, while I was waiting to shoot ‘Pinocchio,’ I actually made it, and the result has gone beyond my expectations.”
Luca Guadagnino’s coming-of-age love story “Call Me by Your Name,” which went into the race with 13 nominations, left relatively empty-handed, winning awards for best adapted screenplay and original song.
Somewhat surprisingly, however, the sweep did not include a best-actor prize for Marcello Fonte, who had previously won that accolade at Cannes, where “Dogman” premiered, and more recently at the European Film Awards.
“Directing is important…but without great actors you don’t go anywhere,” said Garrone, who thanked Fonte and brought him up onstage.
“I started writing this movie 12 years ago,” Garrone added. “Then, while I was waiting to shoot ‘Pinocchio,’ I actually made it, and the result has gone beyond my expectations.”
Luca Guadagnino’s coming-of-age love story “Call Me by Your Name,” which went into the race with 13 nominations, left relatively empty-handed, winning awards for best adapted screenplay and original song.
- 3/28/2019
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
After Paolo Sorrentino’s virtuoso evisceration of Italian politician Giulio Andreotti in “Il Divo,” expectations were sky high that the distinctive director would bring a similar caustic bravura to his treatment of Silvio Berlusconi. Yet “Loro 1,” the first of a two-part kaleidoscopic consideration of the four-time prime minister and the Italy he fostered, is not so much an invigorating acid bath as a subtly written, stylistically more classical look at one of the most divisive European leaders in recent memory. It aims to peer not just into Berlusconi’s monomaniacal soul, but to expose, as with “The Great Beauty,” the apotheosis of vulgarity and craving for attention that’s been the canny politician and media magnate’s lasting imprint on Italian society.
Whether it’s successful depends very much on “Loro 2,” to be released in Italy on May 10, roughly two weeks after this installment. Rumor has it the...
Whether it’s successful depends very much on “Loro 2,” to be released in Italy on May 10, roughly two weeks after this installment. Rumor has it the...
- 5/8/2018
- by Jay Weissberg
- Variety Film + TV
The first teaser trailer is out for Academy Award-winning director Paolo Sorrentino's new film Loro (Them) about Italy's billionaire media mogul and four-time prime minister.
In typical Sorrentino fashion, the movie features loud music, richly saturated cinematography from Luca Bigazzi and his favorite co-conspirator, Toni Servillo, playing Silvio Berlusconi.
Berlusconi's infamous "Bunga Bunga" parties play throughout the trailer. Elena Sofia Ricci portrays Berlusconi's estranged wife Veronica Lario. Ricky Memphis and Riccardo Scamarcio also star in the film.
In the trailer, a voiceover asks the former politician, "What did you expect: that you could be the richest man in the country, be prime minister...
In typical Sorrentino fashion, the movie features loud music, richly saturated cinematography from Luca Bigazzi and his favorite co-conspirator, Toni Servillo, playing Silvio Berlusconi.
Berlusconi's infamous "Bunga Bunga" parties play throughout the trailer. Elena Sofia Ricci portrays Berlusconi's estranged wife Veronica Lario. Ricky Memphis and Riccardo Scamarcio also star in the film.
In the trailer, a voiceover asks the former politician, "What did you expect: that you could be the richest man in the country, be prime minister...
- 3/13/2018
- by Ariston Anderson
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Rome – Silvio Berlusconi is a free man – at least romantically speaking. The 77-year-old Italian billionaire still has a year of house arrest hanging over him, plus three open criminal or civil trials and legal and political problems. But a court in Monza, near Milan, on Wednesday declared Berlusconi officially divorced from Veronica Lario, the one-time actress and showgirl he married in 1990. Lario first requested the divorce in 2009. That means Berlusconi is now officially free to marry Francesca Pasquale, the Italian dancer 49 years his junior. They got engaged in 2012. Photos: 25 of
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- 2/19/2014
- by Eric J. Lyman
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Italian soft porn director Tinto Brass, the subject of a documentary screening at Venice film festival Saturday, told reporters he wants to make a film about ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi's escorts.
"I want to make a film about Berlusconi. I had in mind the title 'Thank you, Daddy'", Brass said, referring to the nickname given to Berlusconi by the girls who attended the famously bawdy parties in his villa.
Brass -- best known for his erotic films "All Ladies Do It", a raunchy take on Mozart's opera Cosi Fan Tutte, and the brutal cult movie "Caligula" -- is in Venice to mark the screening of "Intintobrass", a documentary about his life.
Kicking back on the terrace of the luxury Excelsior hotel with his busty companion Caterina Varzi, who he describes as his "muse", the 80-year-old lamented "the preference today for senseless Internet porn over crafted erotic films."
His would-be subject matter,...
"I want to make a film about Berlusconi. I had in mind the title 'Thank you, Daddy'", Brass said, referring to the nickname given to Berlusconi by the girls who attended the famously bawdy parties in his villa.
Brass -- best known for his erotic films "All Ladies Do It", a raunchy take on Mozart's opera Cosi Fan Tutte, and the brutal cult movie "Caligula" -- is in Venice to mark the screening of "Intintobrass", a documentary about his life.
Kicking back on the terrace of the luxury Excelsior hotel with his busty companion Caterina Varzi, who he describes as his "muse", the 80-year-old lamented "the preference today for senseless Internet porn over crafted erotic films."
His would-be subject matter,...
- 9/1/2013
- by Agence France Presse
- Huffington Post
Rome -- Francesca Pasquale, take note: Apparently, it can pay to be the former Mrs. Silvio Berlusconi. Just days after the 76-year-old Berlusconi, Italy’s billionaire media tycoon and three-time prime minister, announced he got engaged to Pasquale, 27, terms of divorce from Berlusconi’s second wife, Veronica Lario, were revealed. He will pay her €36 million ($47.2 million) a year in alimony. That works out to be nearly $131,000 a day. Story: Italy's Berlusconi Engaged to Woman 49 Years His Junior, Now Feels 'Less Lonely' The final figure is below the $56.3 million a year Lario
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- 12/28/2012
- by Eric J. Lyman
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The laws of cinema practically guarantee that Silvio Berlusconi's tabloid-ready life and prime-ministership will one day grace the big screen, so screenwriters and studio bosses should study this dream pre-casting from the Daily Beast's Michael Solomon. Apart from Silvio (best played by a smirky Jack Nicholson), the perfectly pouty and scorned ex-wife Veronica Lario is a definite Angelina Jolie role, alleged bunga bung participant "Ruby the Heart Steeler" is a dead ringer for Jessica Alba, and Berlusconi's political mentor (former Italian Pm Bettino Craxi) has all the bald-pated, delightfully scheming look of a Danny DeVito. And for those flashbacks to young Silvio's career as a cruise ship crooner: Nick Jonas, of course.
- 3/31/2012
- by Andre Tartar
- Vulture
London’s Institute of Contemporary Arts recently hosted a murderous double bill to celebrate the imminent Blu-Ray release of 2009’s postmodern Giallo homage Amer, directed by real world couple Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani, both of whom were on hand to provide an insightful Q&A session after the screening, alongside a rare projection of the 1982 genre classic Tenebrae, one of the macabre maestro Dario Argento’s finest and most beloved entries to this blood spattered school of mystery and violence. Hosted by Frightfest guru Alan Jones, one of the world’s leading authorities on that Italian sub-genre so beloved of the horror connoisseur, the event illustrated the compelling and competing factors of the Giallo movie, illustrating how it oscillates from the sublime to the ridiculous. Though it may invite a bloody homicide from the rabid fans of the Grand Guignol, one might well assert that the black-gloved little bastard...
- 1/13/2011
- by John
- SoundOnSight
New DVD celebrates the 80s heyday of video nasties - a genre that didn't quite corrupt the nation's youth … or its dogs
Hard to believe now, but back in the early 1980s Britain was under attack. A sustained attack from a foe more insidious and corrupting than anything that had assailed our shores before; a demonic force that destroyed our mental health, that could deprave all who came into contact with it. Highly scientific studies proved beyond all doubt the peril we were all in, especially our children and even our pets. This was the menace that came from something called a "Video Nasty".
There are two things you should know about that opening paragraph: firstly, everything in it was at one time believed by our leaders of the day (yes, even the bit about pets). And second, they were completely wrong on every count. It was a shameful period in our recent history,...
Hard to believe now, but back in the early 1980s Britain was under attack. A sustained attack from a foe more insidious and corrupting than anything that had assailed our shores before; a demonic force that destroyed our mental health, that could deprave all who came into contact with it. Highly scientific studies proved beyond all doubt the peril we were all in, especially our children and even our pets. This was the menace that came from something called a "Video Nasty".
There are two things you should know about that opening paragraph: firstly, everything in it was at one time believed by our leaders of the day (yes, even the bit about pets). And second, they were completely wrong on every count. It was a shameful period in our recent history,...
- 10/15/2010
- by Phelim O'Neill
- The Guardian - Film News
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has reached a divorce settlement under which his second wife will receive 300,000 euros a month, less than a tenth of the sum she sought, press reports said. Veronica Lario, 20 years Berlusconi's junior at age 53, will also enjoy the use of a large villa outside Milan -- where she already resides -- in the deal to end the couple's 19-year marriage, the reports said. The former stage actress filed for divorce a year ago after revelations that the media tycoon, noted for his dalliances with other women, attended the 18th birthday party ...
- 5/11/2010
- Hindustan Times - Celebrity
Rome -- Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is launching legal actions against media in Italy and abroad, including Britain, France and Spain, for libel in their coverage of his private life, his lawyer said on Friday.
His lawyer Niccolo Ghedini told Reuters that he and his colleagues abroad had already filed lawsuits against newspapers in Italy, France and Spain and had instructed lawyers in Britain to study possible cases of libel there.
"We have instructed our colleagues to evaluate, according to the laws in their countries, the most serious cases of real, true defamation," Ghedini said in a telephone interview.
He said lawyers acting for Berlusconi had sued the French weekly Nouvel Observateur for a story headlined "Sex, Power and Lies" and Spain's El Pais for publishing photos of guests at the billionaire premier's Sardinian villa cavorting naked.
In Italy they have sued La Repubblica, a tireless critic of the conservative leader,...
His lawyer Niccolo Ghedini told Reuters that he and his colleagues abroad had already filed lawsuits against newspapers in Italy, France and Spain and had instructed lawyers in Britain to study possible cases of libel there.
"We have instructed our colleagues to evaluate, according to the laws in their countries, the most serious cases of real, true defamation," Ghedini said in a telephone interview.
He said lawyers acting for Berlusconi had sued the French weekly Nouvel Observateur for a story headlined "Sex, Power and Lies" and Spain's El Pais for publishing photos of guests at the billionaire premier's Sardinian villa cavorting naked.
In Italy they have sued La Repubblica, a tireless critic of the conservative leader,...
- 8/28/2009
- by By Stephen Brown, Reuters
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Actress Veronica Lario has broken her silence and blasted reports she cheated on her estranged husband, Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi, during their 19-year marriage.
Lario, 52, is seeking a divorce from the Prime Minister after tiring of his womanising ways.
But she is furious over claims made in the Italian press about her alleged infidelity with a bodyguard, and has decided to speak out a month after the rumours began circulating in a bid to set the record straight.
And Lario is adamant the media is simply trying to damage her reputation.
Writing in leading local newspaper, Corriere della Sera, she says, "Over these last weeks, I have watched in silence, without reacting through the media, as people brutally sully my person, my dignity and my marriage."
Last month, Berlusconi demanded an apology from Lario for going public with her plans to divorce him.
Lario, 52, is seeking a divorce from the Prime Minister after tiring of his womanising ways.
But she is furious over claims made in the Italian press about her alleged infidelity with a bodyguard, and has decided to speak out a month after the rumours began circulating in a bid to set the record straight.
And Lario is adamant the media is simply trying to damage her reputation.
Writing in leading local newspaper, Corriere della Sera, she says, "Over these last weeks, I have watched in silence, without reacting through the media, as people brutally sully my person, my dignity and my marriage."
Last month, Berlusconi demanded an apology from Lario for going public with her plans to divorce him.
- 6/12/2009
- WENN
Italian leader Silvio Berlusconi is demanding an apology from his actress wife for going public with her plans to divorce the premier.
Veronica Lario, 52, has confirmed she is seeking a divorce to end her 19-year marriage because she's tired of his womanising ways.
The 72-year-old Prime Minister is upset because his estranged wife has accused him of "consorting with minors" in Italian newspaper articles.
The stunning divorce comes just a month before Berlusconi starts fighting for re-election.
The angry leader says, "I supposedly hang around with, as my wife said, 17-year-old girls. That is something I cannot put up with. I am the friend of the (girl's) father and nothing more.
"Veronica will have to publicly apologise to me. And I don't know if that will be enough."...
Veronica Lario, 52, has confirmed she is seeking a divorce to end her 19-year marriage because she's tired of his womanising ways.
The 72-year-old Prime Minister is upset because his estranged wife has accused him of "consorting with minors" in Italian newspaper articles.
The stunning divorce comes just a month before Berlusconi starts fighting for re-election.
The angry leader says, "I supposedly hang around with, as my wife said, 17-year-old girls. That is something I cannot put up with. I am the friend of the (girl's) father and nothing more.
"Veronica will have to publicly apologise to me. And I don't know if that will be enough."...
- 5/4/2009
- WENN
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